Our successes

Data protection

Increases in data protection periods resulted from nearly two decades of lobbying.

This data is the research and test results generated by crop protection and veterinary medicine companies to prove the safety and efficacy of a product. The data is required by the Environmental Protection Authority and the Ministry for Primary Industries before they approve the sale of an agricultural compound. This information often costs millions of dollars to obtain. The protection of this data is essential for the innovation and development of new products due to the cost and detailed research required.

The ACVM (Data Protection) Amendment Bill, which includes increases to data protection of up to 10 years, was passed into law on 8 November 2016.

The increase strikes that balance, between the rights of innovator companies to receive an acceptable return from their investment in innovative products, while working in a competitive market.

New Zealand now offers 10 years protection for innovative products; and five years for new uses, reformulations, non-innovative products and reassessments.

Labelling changes

Until 2012, all agrichemical labels were required to have a shelf life statement of two years, which meant that large amounts of products that were unsold in the two year period had to be sent back for testing due to the expiry date.

As this was very inefficient, Agcarm successfully lobbied to remove this requirement for products that are stable for at least two years.

Another success was writing the veterinary medicine group standard to remove superfluous labelling requirements on low dose veterinary medicines. Allowing registrants to self-assess products which fit into the scope of the group standard.

Exempt laboratories

Another successful law change to exempt some veterinary medicines used for research, testing, and training – from ACVM registration.